Teardrops n Tiny Travel Trailers

Im not building a foamy but you guys use a lot of canvas so i thought i would ask my question here.

What weight canvas would you recommend for covering a plywood teardrop?

I plan to use titebond 2 and canvas for my skinning.


Steve

Steve, my suggestion is to go to the store and check How different canvases look and feel the weight also influences how close the material is woven. for me it was a money factor, what was on sale with the approximate weave. the more it cost the tighter the weave is not always true but it is almost true.

Mary C.

Any fabric that soaks up paint will work. Thicker will take more paint and weigh more. Thicker fabric seems to have more pattern which will not dry as smooth.
Thin cotton fabric like bed sheet will do the job, it really comes down to what price you can get the size you want.
Over plywood, thin fabric would be fine.

Ok thanks.
I can buy it through my work so it will be less expensive than if i had to buy it retail.

How do you guys handle seams?

Do you just over lap or do you actually sew the fabric together.
Thanks for your help

Steve

We used 10 oz Harbor Freight painters drop cloths. They were sewed with a seam, but I cut the (fat) seam out so I had flat sheets of canvas.
I glued down the first part, let it dry, them overlapped about 1 to 2 inches when I glued down the second part.


Same thing for the edges. I put the sides on flat, and let it dry. then I trimmed to about a 1-1/2" excess. painted glue on the wood, and wrapped it around the edge. Smoothing with my palms made the wrap easy to do, and I didn't need to slit the canvas. Following the same procedure for the top canvas left a double layer all along the edge.





After gluing it in place I stepped away from the glue bottle. I applied the exterior latex house paint to the BARE canvas. Some people soak the outside of the canvas with glue, but I believe that glue is made to stick things together (canvas to wood), and paint is made to protect a surface (bare canvas)

We've been real happy with the canvas cover on ours.



Sam

Thank you sir.

Im sold on the canvas covering.

Steve

Sam,

You did a great job on that canvas. Every time I see those pictures, I'm impressed. Your paint scheme looks great too!

I used canvas from Big Duck canvas that was 11.5 oz. I think that is what they call number 12. I ordered from them because I wanted widths that would allow me to not have a seam. I've used HF drop cloth canvas and the Big Duck canvas and the BD canvas is REALLY nice canvas. There wasn't a defect to be found anywhere in it. In retrospect, the seam is really not an issue (as Sam has shown) and the quality of the canvas isn't really that much of an issue either. When I build another one, I'll just stick to the drop cloth canvas and save a little money. Once it is painted, there really isn't much difference.

-Ron

I work at McMaster-Carr and can get this:

http://www.mcmaster.com/#8777k13/=x3ba59

Or this

http://www.mcmaster.com/#8777k16/=x3baqw

Both are 60" wide with no seams. We sell them by trade number and oz by square yard.

I,m assuming that when you guys are saying a specific oz it is that figure and not the trade number?

Steve